Innocence
by blueandblack
Summary: A collection of twelve 100 word drabbles, all based on the prompt 'Innocence'. Various characters and pairings.


Love, Jacob, Seth, Leah

--

Jacob figured it was the wolf that had stolen his innocence, until Seth Clearwater started phasing, smiled, kept phasing, kept smiling.

Not even the pain of losing Harry could break his spirit. Jacob had been the same. His mother's death had been just as brutal and sudden and unfair, had hurt in ways his young mind couldn't understand. But he had held on, tunnelled relentlessly till he hit light, found himself again.

Dead parent, check. Monster inside, check.

So why was Seth still pure, when Jacob – and Leah too, he realized – were blackened and heavy with life?

Love.

--

Snow Globe, Jacob/Bella, Edward/Bella

--

Bella looks back.

Too beautiful, all honey and cellophane and a heart that belonged to her.

Edward.

She remembers when that was the only name that curled her tongue in sleep, pines for a love that was absolute and pure white, cased in thick glass, nothing gets in or out…

Someone dropped the snow globe.

Bella picked Jacob Black up with the mess of wet shards.

She looks back at the _only you_ innocence, craves it more, as much as, almost as much as she craves Jacob's arms around her, his warm lips at her neck whispering _We're in love._

_--_

Looking, Jacob/Bella

--

Bella agonizes over it, tries in vain to pin down the moment, the words, the touch, the look that had nudged things into something more.

More than I want it to be, she thinks crossly.

A chill runs down her spine when she remembers calling him beautiful. _Sort of_ beautiful, she corrects, but it doesn't comfort her.

She remembers the look on his face then, the subtle jump in his stomach, the ripple of russet skin.

And that's when she realizes that she had been looking, really _looking._

The truth is that it was never innocent, for either of them.

--

After The Honeymoon, Edward/Bella

--

A few things change after the honeymoon.

For example, Edward starts using the lock on his bedroom door.

_So warm-soft-sweet-wet it nearly kills him, and he laughs into her skin at all the times he said this would be too dangerous for _her,_ at the gasp that rips out of her when his fingers slip between her thighs. _

Edward Cullen is not as innocent as everybody believes, and when Bella flashes him a wicked smile, mouths a secret that ends in _later_, it's not the first time he's been glad that he is the only telepath in the family.

--

Experienced, Sam/Leah

--

The first time Leah kisses Sam it's the first time she's kissed anybody, but she will never admit it.

Ever since the sixth grade, when she pulled Tom Marsters behind the garden shed, all her friends have assumed she's _experienced._

She never mentioned that neither she nor Tom had the guts to go through with it. They just stood around awkwardly for a few minutes, swore each other to secrecy.

When Sam smiles shyly, tells her that's the first time he's kissed a girl, Leah just smirks, leans into his lips and whispers _Leah Clearwater, corruptor of innocent boys._

_--_

Urges, Quil/Claire

--

Quil copped a lot of shit about his "innocence."

Apparently a thirty-year-old virgin was nearly as funny as a forty-year-old one. (Too bad Edward Cullen never let slip he made it to one hundred and eight.)

Quil didn't mind the jokes really, he sort of _couldn't,_ because there was only Claire and Claire was only sixteen and he didn't see anyone else.

He still had, you know, urges – the imprinting hadn't hollowed out his hormones over the past fourteen years. But the idea of acting on them with some random girl made him sick.

Literally. He threw up once.

--

Your First Breath etc, Nessie

--

When Nessie is six, sixteen, whatever, she goes through a Sarah McLachlan phase.

She loves nearly all the songs, even the sappy ones.

She hates Adia.

_we are born innocent_

Nessie sides with the Catholics, the sin of your first breath etc. At least that way she's not alone.

_crack of a whip, no, bones, bones and too-soft skin_

_her mother screams and holds herself, screams and holds her_

_clawing her way to wild, red eyes_

_while home burns into cold behind her_

_and later, years later, Jacob is agony she made when he looks at a vampire, whispers 'Bells.'_

--

The Rules, Rosalie, Esme

--

As far as Rosalie is concerned 'sweet' is just another word for 'naïve' and 'innocent' is just another word for 'stupid'.

So when Esme tells her she really should be nicer to Bella Swan because she's a) sweet and b) innocent, she finds it difficult not to laugh in her face.

Difficult, but not impossible.

Rosalie has always hated the idea of hurting Esme, because she's just so…

That is when she realizes that her mother breaks all the rules, because she is sweet and innocent and clever and wise all at once.

Rosalie smiles, tells her she'll try harder.

--

Wishing, Jacob/Bella

--

Bella once wished Jacob had been born her brother. It would have made everything so much simpler. You can't tell your sister you're in love with her, hold her, kiss her like _that._

_Well, you could, I guess, but it would just be messed up._

At any rate, wishing didn't change anything, Jacob isn't her brother and he isn't her best friend either. She doesn't know _what_ he is anymore.

Kneeling beside him now, pale fingers deep in red-brown fur as he makes appreciative noises, leans into her innocent touch, she thinks _Maybe I can keep him as my pet._

_--_

Tolerable, Leah, Rosalie

--

It took Leah years to understand the Cullens, get past the blind disgust that went with the smell.

Even then she didn't really like any of them.

They were all so cute and innocent – cute and innocent vampires, ha! - and the damn kid only made it worse.

Somehow though, Nessie-obsessed Rosalie was tolerable. Just.

They traded back-stories once.

"I got my heart broken and I was a vile bitch to everyone about it."

Rosalie smirked.

"I was gang raped, left for dead, murdered the men who did it plus a couple of guards."

Leah raised both eyebrows.

"Impressive."

--

Beautiful, Quil/Claire

--

"Claire is beautiful."

Quil had said it a lot over the years, thought it hundreds, no it had to be thousands, tens of thousands of times, and it had always been completely innocent.

But now, as he watched her dab clear gloss to her lips in front of the mirror, clad in a dark pink-red blush of silk, the thought was accompanied with a new and disturbing urge to step behind her and slip his fingers under the flimsy straps at her smooth shoulders, kiss her neck and whisper _You're so beautiful, so fucking gorgeous, I want you, be mine._

_--_

Birth, Esme, Rosalie, Alice

--

When Esme's son was born he was perfection.

It didn't matter that his father was more of a monster than the vampires she now called kin, it didn't matter that he would be taken from her within days and with him steal away all hope… Her son had been born whole and new, pure innocence.

Esme reflects uneasily on the 'birth' of her first daughter, on everything that brought Rosalie to now.

It is all brokenness and pain, the sin of murder, years of mourning and still – _always_ - scarred inside…

Alice is different. Alice is more like her baby boy.


End file.
